A Vietnam war era theatre made USMC HMH-463rd "Barrel Bomber" Patch

[Patchcollector]

Happy Friday all,
I was really happy to find and add this piece to my collection.It is a US Marine Corps Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 (HMH-463) patch,made during the Vietnam war.It is pretty "grungy" and was once sewn to something.

The unit sometimes half jokingly referred to itself as the "463rd Rotary Loose Wing Bomber Squadron" due to missions they conducted whereby they dropped barrels of gasoline and Napalm on the enemy forces.The Helicopter depicted on the patch is shown releasing a "bomb" as part of the symbolism of these missions.

It seems this unit was involved in more than a few unusual missions during the Vietnam war,from the barrel bombing to airlifting an elephant,and participating in OP's such as "End Sweep",the minesweeping of North Vietnamese waters,and Operations "Eagle Pull" and "Frequent Wind",the evacuation of Phnom Penh and Saigon.

 

Shown below is some info I found about the unit and it's VN wartime missions.I highlighted the area that describes the "Barrel Bombing" missions.

 

 

Vietnam War

Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 was reactivated on March 1, 1966 at MCAS Santa Ana and assigned to Marine Wing Support Group 37, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing flying the CH-53 Sea Stallion airframe. A four-plane detachment from HMH-463 deployed to Marble Mountain Air Facility, Vietnam in December 1966. HMH-463 was reassigned to Marine Aircraft Group 16. The remainder of the squadron would deploy during May 1967 to Marble Mountain where they participated in combat operations during the Vietnam War for the next four years.One of the more different flights taken by the squadron occurred in 1968 when they participated in Operation Bahroom. This entailed delivering an elephant via helicopter from the airstrip at Chu Lai Air Base to the Special Forces camp at Tra Bong to work at a local saw mill.

 

1970 saw the squadron start to delve into bombing missions or what they termed "barrel bombing." During this time they would fly 2 - 4 ship flights at low altitude to draw enemy fire. Once they encountered enemy contact they would then fly over the area again and drop 55 gallon drums of gasoline and napalm that were sling-loaded to the bottom of the aircraft. Usually the force of impact would ignite the barrel mixture but they would occasionally need machine gun fire from the helicopter door guns or rockets from an OV-10 Bronco or AH-1 Cobra. On a mission over "Charlie Ridge" just west of Danang the squadron dropped over 400 tons of the fuel mixture against entrenched North Vietnamese Army positions.

In 1973, HMH-463 returned to Vietnam and participated in Operation End Sweep, the minesweeping operations in the Haiphong/Hon Gai Area of North Vietnam from February through July.

On 26 March 1975, HMH-463 embarked on the USS Hancock (CV-19) at Pearl Harbor and the Hancock proceeded to Subic Bay and then on station in the Gulf of Thailand.

On 12 April 1975, the squadron participated in Operation Eagle Pull, the evacuation of Phnom Penh and 17 days later it participated in Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon.

 

[Patchcollector]

Back view

[Bill Scott]

Now that's one I have not owned and what a neat story of the squadron.Thanks Scotty

[1SG_1st_Cav]

Awsome history and if only that patch could talk!!!!!!!

[Patchcollector]

Thanks guys!This is not an easy patch to find so I count it as a blessing that I paid only 7.59 for it!

[Fly USMC]

Great Patch and price, Congratulations!

[Patchcollector]

Great Patch and price, Congratulations!

 

Thanks!